WooAudio WA7 Fireflies Reviews

Pros: Good DAC. Small form factor. Beautiful. Dead silent background. Great with IEMs. Plenty of power for orthos. Good for all cans. DAC works w/power off.

Cons: Only one optional set of tubes.

A Tale of Two Tube Amps
Woo Audio WA7 and ALO Audio PanAm
My normal gear preference and choice for many years has been solid state. I have held a curiosity, however, in tube-based audio gear and the possibilities and presentation that comes from it. It might be considered ironic that considering how endlessly I have been fiddling with my main system for years now that I wouldn't consider an amp that would allow me to do this considerably more via tube rolling, but my indecisiveness has intervened more often than not, especially when presented with too many options.
Likewise, many people, when seeking suitable audio equipment to buy, simply want...

A truly stunning aesthetic combined with a high level of functionality and a beautiful sound suggests the Wa7 will be around for a while.
Purists may be turned off by the internal USB powered dac , LED enhanced tube glow and the lack of rolling options.
I think this unit will really appeal to people who may have been interested in a tube amp but worried about the potential problems.
The Wa7 is a set and forget solution just plug in switch on and relax.

Takes the edge off the Sennheiser HD800's thereby matching up well with them. Great separation, silent background and low fatigue factor. Not much to say that hasn't already been said before. Very nice little tube amp.

Pros: So gorgeous even the most unsupportive of audiophile wives will allow it in without asking too many questions, sounds as good as it looks, compact.

Cons: Will take up a lot of your "spare time".

Sorry for the late reply, but here we are after day1. I should start by saying that due to working 10am-6pm today, i didnt get as much time with the WA7 as i would have liked although i did get a couple hours in and some very interesting results.
First off, some pics of when i first picked it up from A2A, god it was smaller than i thought!!!!
=
Next to the ever so tiny Pan Am "portable" amp... almost the same size, in fact apart from a couple mm more of width, and half a bees bit in length (actually less) = the same size. One thing i did notice is that the 6c45's absolutely DWARFED the little dinky valves in the Pan AM. Build quality and finishes, there was...

I have had this unit now for a week and am fully impressed. Right out of the box and without any burn-in it delivers breathtaking tone to instruments and vocals alike. Solid power and strong bass drive even with hard to drive headphones. Switching to some efficient T5p's still leaves the volume pot at 12:00 with a strong performance. Clearly attention to detail was paid in getting the 1/8 and 1/4 ports matched in volume. My only complaints being at this price point it would have been nice to have a sabre dac inside instead of a ti compromises slightly the crispness of the signal when used as a dac and it not being able to output as a dac to the rca outputs...